Back in July 1999 I wrote an article about the problems that I had experienced with a tidy (but deceptive) Suzuki DR 350. I have had a huge responce from other owners all over the World, and one of them suggested writing a second article on what eventually happened next, so here it is!
In July last year the bike was sitting broken in the back garden.
Although I had changed the engine it refused to start, and after spending days and days checking and re-checking everything I was convinced that it was an electrical problem. Engines I can understand and find relatively easy to work on, but despite working in an electrical factory once upon a time, electrics are a total mystery to me. Too many bloody wires! After weeks of trying I eventually saved up enough money, and took the bike to a local, friendly and trust-worthy garage. They got it running in half a day!
I felt like an idiot when I realise what I was doing wrong. The original engine had the side stand cut-out switch disabled, the new one hadn't. So in the hot summer months when I was trying to get it going I was trying with the side-stand down, so the engine wouldn't fire any-way! A simple mistake that anyone could have made...I hope!
So now I had a working bike, sort of. The new engine was crap! It burnt oil at a vast rate (it once burnt just under a litre in a 40 mile journey!), made siezing noises, had very little power compared to the original, and cut out in the rain! I never tried to take the bike off-road again, for fears of the worst. I find it a little sad that the bike could no longer do what it was designed for. I wrote to Suzuki and expressed my feelings about their 'quality' product, and they replied that they basically didn't care. Although I hadn't expected anything. I doubt that I will ever consider buying a Suzuki again, it's not really the company's fault, I was just unlucky. At about the same time I sold the DR a relative of mine bought an RG 500, which he still owns, and it has a similar story to the DR, I don't think that it's worked for more than a week the whole time he's owned it, but that's another (and long) story!
The first thing that I did when it was working again was to put it up for sale , I wasn't going to keep it long enough for it to go wrong again! After a couple of months, and a manic morning of cleaning it, a builder came alone to have a look at it. He had passed his bike test that morning and was eager to buy a bike that day. I think I could have sold him a box of bits for all he cared, just as long as it was a bike. He looked it over and liked it, and without even starting it up made me an offer!
Although I got about £200 below the asking price, I was now just relieved that some-one wanted to buy it so I just took the money. The guy seemed happy enough, wheeled it into the back of his van and drove off into the sunset (in an idealist filmic fashion). I haven't actually worked out how much money I spent on keeping the DR going over the eight months that I owned it, but I think it's in the region of £1200, that's nearly as much as I paid for it! That's a hell of a lot of money for anyone let alone a student, and it would have paid my rent and bills for about six months!
I've been told by a local garage owner who knows the builder that the DR is still working and he's had no problems with it, I suppose it was just my bad luck!
After the DR I bought a Honda VT Bros 400 (known as the Hawk in the States). Despite having been owned by a courier, and my harsh treatment, it didn't go wrong once in the year that I owned it. I put about 30,000 miles on the clock and even sold it for what I paid for it, restoring my faith in bikes, great! Since then I have been drawn to the dark side of fast bikes, rather than the laid-back thumping of a single or a trailie! I now own a Honda CB 1 (for those who don't know it's the engine from a CBR 400 in a different naked frame, with crap brakes!), which like the Bros never breaks down, touch wood!
My only fault with the bike is that being 6'4" it looks like a mini-moto under me!
You can't beat the fit of a nice trail bike, and when i've got some money I hope to get another one, but not a Suzuki!This isn't quite the end of the story though! In December 2000, just as I was going to clear out the basement and get rid of what's left of the old DR engine, I got an E-mail from a guy in Sweden. I can't remember exactly what was wrong with his bike but he needed new bottom end parts, he had seen my article on the Thumper page and wanted to buy the remains of the engine if I still had it! Great! After a price was agreeed and a lot of shouting down the telephone to shipping companies the engine was sold, and then shipped! By the end of February he sent me another E-mail saying the bike was fixed and he was busy crashing around Sweden on spikey tyres!
I like to think in the end that at least my 'tale of woe' helped someone else out!
The last thing that I would like to say is that if you want a DR don't let the problems I had put you off. They are good bikes (mine was when it worked) but if you buy one from a dealer get a gaurantee, try to get one with under 10'000 miles on the clock, and with as few former owners as possible, or...You could just get a new DR 400z!
Thanks to all of the people that send me mail, and support, after the last article. I tried to reply to you all but if I haven't I'm sorry, but thanks anyway! Thanks also to the Thumper page for letting me publish the article in the first place, it really helped to get it off my chest!
Tim Saunders ( soon to have BA after his name! )
(
tsaundm1n01398@KIADROCH.KIAD.AC.UK )
03/18/01